Social Media Content: How to expand your Instagram reach by utilising the Instagram algorithm.

The social network, Instagram, currently has over 1 billion active users, with millions (and we mean millions) of photos posted per day. Although this platform is forever growing, there has been a noticeable decline in marketers organic reach and engagement. This is due to Instagram’s algorithm. Here are ways we have found to expand your Instagram reach.

We’re gonna break down what Instagrams algorithm means. Basically, the algorithm chooses photos and posts with high engagement rates and shows them first on a users’ Instagram feed. This means that you may not see every post you would like to.

According to Instagram the three main factors that determine what you see in your Instagram feed are:

Interest

Social Media is all about authentic and meaningful interactions between users, so it is important to publish content your audience will find interesting! People follow genres of content and this is used by the algorithm to determine what posts will feature at the top of you or your customers feed. From content that has been interacted with in the past to hashtags used, will all play a part in determining the ranking of your feed.

Naturally, it would seem more tempting to post multiple times a day with the idea that more people will see your posts, but experts suggest posting less often, using images of a higher quality can actually be more beneficial. You know what they say “less is more”, “quality over quantity” etc etc etc. This way you can spend more time making one post fabulous rather than continually sharing mediocre posts. Carefully curated photos with captivating descriptions and strong calls to action will hold the audience’s interest for longer, as well as video content, live videos that are pre-planned and well executed, Instagram stories and relevant hashtags. Instagram engagement is an ever-changing force, you need to keep your content varied and interesting to keep exciting your followers.

Timeliness

Time is of the essence!

When is comes to expanding your reach on Instagram the amount of likes and comments received just after posting is extremely important, because if the initial engagement is high, it is more likely that Instagram will push the post higher in the feed.

So, figuring out when your target audience is most active on Instagram would highly benefit the exposure of each post. By using tools found on Instagram Business accounts like Insights, or any other analytics app for regular accounts, you can clearly see time periods where people are most active.

Even though Instagrams algorithm plays around with the structure of posts shared, timing is still important as Instagram is more likely to show more recent posts rather than posts from a few days ago, regardless of the engagement level.

Relationship

Relationship pretty much goes hand in hand with Interest as to build a relationship with an audience there needs to be common interests.

If you’re concerned you are only going to see the most popular post from Kim K at the top of your feed, never fear! Instagram doesn’t want you to miss the important things from friends and family either! Instagram will sort through information such as whose content you like often, people you direct message, or search for, creating an algorithm to suit you and your interests.

To build a relationship with an audience, interaction is key!Reply to comments quickly, follow and like others’ posts and repost when necessary.

From a marketing perspective, reposting User Generated Content (UGC) creates trust and a connection between the business and target audience. It works both ways, see the business basically gets a free campaign ad by using free content posted by fans or customers and the user gets exposure. Curating user-generated content can encourage those users to engage with and share content.

Collaborating with other users is another great way to create relationships finding new audience as it produces new content for you, leads to trust of a brand and raising brand awareness. Even hosting a giveaway is sure way of securing interaction onto your profile.

So after all that info, the key things you need to know to expand your Instagram reach are: Keep your posts interesting, know the right times to post and build relationships! As a brand, you want to create an authentic quality content and enjoyable experience for your followers to interact with. With Instagrams new algorithms, brands are encouraged to post only their very best content, and their reach will be determined by this content quality. Brands with the best content overall will stand out against the rest. Building those relationships will enable you to get to know your audience so you can, therefore, fulfil their expectations.

Expanding your reach on Instagram takes time and effort, but follow our tips and you’re sure to succeed!